The Walking Dead
by Emerald Bow and Arrow
Summary: Sutton Frost is new to the group and she is head over heels in love with Daryl Dixon bases off the tv series I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING!
1. Chapter 1

I climbed down out of the RV as steam flamed up from the sputtering engine. The yellow station wagon pulled up behind us and Daryl turned his bike around to come back to us. The quiver bounced off my back and my bow clanged against my leg as me and the rest of the group made our way to the front of theh RV.

"I said it." Dale said. "Didn't I say it? A thousand times. Dead in the water."

"Problem, Dale?" Shane asked him, shotgun in his hand.

"Just a small matter of being stuck in the middle of nowhere with no hope of-" Daryl started rumaging through an open trunk of a van. "Okay, that was dumb."

"If you can't find a radiator hose here..."

"There's a whole bunch of stuff we can find." Daryl said.

"I can siphon more fuel from these cars for a start." T-dog said, grabbing a hose and a gas canister.

"Maybe some water." Carol suggested.

"Or food." Dale added.

"Come on, y'all." T-dog called to everybody. "Just look around. Gather what you can." I began going from car to car, throwing flashlights and canned goods into my empty tote bag. I was about to my seventh car and reaching for a can of spaghetti O's when a hand clamped over my mouth and pulled me down under the car. Daryl took off his crossbow and my quiver and bow so we could have more room to fit under the car. I looked in front of me to the other car and saw Rick under it and a couple cars over Lori and Carol were hiding under another car, Lori's hand clamped over Carol's mouth. What the hell was going on? Then, I saw and heard it. A pair of feet dragged across the cement followed by groans and moans. Then another pair showed up and another and another until there were too many feet to count. Daryl curled his body tighter around mine as the walkers neared us, his free arm snaking around my stomach to pull me closer to him. Dozens and dozens of walkers grumbled as they bumped through the cars trying to make their way through the maze of cars. Hours of smelling rotten flesh and death seemed to pass when finally the last pair of feet passed. Daryl slowly loosened his grip on me but still kept me near him. I grabbed my quiver and bow and pushed away from him and dragged myself out from underneath the car with Daryl behind me. A scream sounded back near the RV and we raced off to the direction of the sound.

"There's two walkers are after my baby." Carol cried as she ran towards the woods but Lori pulled her back.

"It's ok, Carol." I reassured. "Rick will bring her back."

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"You sure this is the spot?" Daryl questioned Rick as he looked at a pile of brambles in the river.

"I left her right here." Rick insisted. "I drew the walkers way off in that direction up the creek." He pointed downstream.

"Without a paddle-Seems where we've landed."

"She was gone by the time I got back. I figured she just took off and ran back to the group. I told her go that way and keep the sun on her left shoulder." Daryl walked over to the riverbed and looked up to the dirt at Glen.

"Hey, Short Round, why don't you step off to one side? You're mucking up the trail." Glen looked over at me at Daryl's words as he took a step to the side. I held my hands up in surrender. I had no control over what Daryl said.

"Assuming she knows her left from her right." Shane said.

"Shane, she understood me fine." Rick snapped.

"Kid's tired and scared, man. She had her a close call with two walkers. Got to wonder how much of what your said stuck."

"Got clear prints right here." Daryl said, looking at the forest floor. "She did like you said, headed back to the highway. "Let's spread out, make our way back." Daryl climbed up out of the river with Rick behind him.

"She couldn't have gone far." We followed behind Daryl as he kept close to the ground, keeping his eye on Sophia's trail, crossbow ready in his right hand until he stopped.

"She was doing just fine till right here. All she had to do was keep going. She veered off that way." He pointed to his right.

"Why would she do that?" I mumbled.

"Maybe she saw something that spooked her, made her run off." Shane suggested.

"A walker?" Glen questioned him. Daryl shook his head as he looked closer at the trail.

"I don't see any other footprints." He said. "Just hers.

"So what do we do?" Shane asked. "All of us press on?"

"No, better if you, Glen and Sutton get back up to the highway. People are gonna start panicking. Let them know we're on her trail doing everything we can. But most of all, keep everybody calm."

"I ain't goin' anywhere." I said.

"Sutton, I need you with the others."

"I'm pretty sure these boys can handle the group on their own. Can't you, boys?"

"I'll keep 'em busy scavenging cars." Shane said. "Think up a few other chores. I'll keep 'em occupied. Come on." Glen and Shane past us and headed back to the highway and Rick turned to me.

"You sure you're up for this?" He asked me.

"Boy, I ain't no Tinkerbell. I know how to take of myself. You men always underestimating women. What the hell's wrong with you?" I scoffed as Daryl laughed at my tone and began to follow Sophia's trail.

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"The tracks are gone." Rick sighed after about twenty minutes of following Sophia's tracks.

"No, they're faint, but they ain't gone." Daryl observed the ground. "She came through here."

"How can you tell?I don't see anything but dirt, grass."

"Boy, our mission is to find a little girl not to get tracking lessons. Focus, man!" I scolded Rick. Even though Rick was older than me and was a police officer, he still always took my words to mind. Leaves rustled in front of us and we immediately dropped to the ground. I pulled an arrow from my quiver and strung in my string, ready to shoot. Daryl and I looked to Rick and he pointed off into the distance and we kept low as we followed after Rick. We saw a walker with its back to us and Rick looked to Daryl. Daryl aimed his crossbow at the walker but looked at Rick and shook his head when he couldn't get a clear shot. Rick began to walk forward again with a new plan in mind but I stopped him. I stepped up onto a tree stump and raised my bow and arrow, using my thumb to line up my arrow with the walker's head. I slowly pulled the bowstring back and once I was sure the shot was clear and I let go of the arrow and it whistled through the air to the walker's head. I looked down at Rick.

"And we're back again to men underestimating women." I growled at him. I hopped off the stump and we walked to the walker. I stepped on the walker's back and pulled the arrow out of its head, wiping it on the grass to get the blood off of it before sticking it back into my quiver.

"Sophia!" Daryl called through the woods but there was no answer. Rick pulled out a pair of gloves from his pocket and slid his hands into them before crouching beside the walker and opening its mouth. "What are you looking for?"

"Skin under the fingernails." Rick said. "It fed recently." Rick stuck his fingers into its mouth and pulled out a chunk of flesh. "There's flesh caught in its teeth."

"Yeah, what kind of flesh?"

"Only one way to know for sure." Rick pulled out his knife and held it above the walker's stomach, ready to cut it open.

"Are you serious?" I questioned.

"We have to know for certain, Sutton."

"Here, I'll do it." Daryl said, pulling out his knife. "How many kills you skin and gut in your life? Anyway, mine is sharper."

"Oh, my god." I groaned, a sick feeling stirring in my gut.

"You're welcome to turn away." I groaned and turned my back to them as I heard the tearing and rendering of the walker's flesh. My stomach jolted wanting to throw up the emptiness. "Now comes the bad part."

"Like that wasn't the bad part already." The smell became horrible when they cut open the stomach. It was a mixture of spoiled food, sewage and...death.

"This gross bastard had himself a woodchuck for lunch."

"At least we know." Rick said.

"At least we know." Daryl and Rick gathered up their gear and we continued on the trail.

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We eventually made our way out of the woods to the highway and Carol was there to greet us. Her face fell and tears clouded her eyes when she saw that it was just the three of us.

"You didn't find her?" She cried.

"Her trail went cold." Rick explained. "We'll pick it up again at first light."

"You can't leave my daughter out there on her own to spend the night alone in the woods."

"Out in the dark's no good." Daryl said. "We'd just be tripping over ourselves. More people get lost."

"But she's 12. She can't be out there on her own. You didn't find anything."

"I know this is hard." I said. "But I'm asking you not to panic. We know she was out there."

"And we tracked her for a while." Daryl added.

"We have to make this an organized effort." Rick said. "Daryl knows the woods better than anybody. I've asked him to oversee this." Carol looked away from Rick and glanced down at Daryl's hands and gasped.

"Is that blood?" She questioned him and started to hyperventilate.

"We took down a walker." I said.

"A walker? Oh my god."

"There was no sign it was ever anywhere near Sophia."

"How can you know that?" Andrea asked. Rick, Daryl and I all glanced at each other.

"We cut the son of a bitch open, made sure." Daryl said. Carol sighed and sat down on a guard rail.

"Oh god." She moaned before looking up at Rick. "How could you just leave her out there to begin with? How could you just leave her?"

"Those two walkers were on us." Rick said. "I had to draw them off. It was her best chance."

"Sounds like he didn't have a choice, Carol." Shane said, standing up for his best friend.

"How was she supposed to find her way back on her own?" Carol questioned him as she began to sob. "She's just a child. She's just a child."

"It was my only option." Rick insisted as he crouched down beside her. "The only choice I could make."

"I'm sure nobody doubts that." Shane said.

"My little girl got left in the woods." Carol cried. Rick walked off unable to bare the guilt Carol was bringing down on him.

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The next morning, Rick gathered us up and laid out an arsenal on the hood of the car, ready to form a search party for Sophia.

"Everybody takes a weapon." Rick said.

"These aren't the kind of weapons we need." Andrea protested angrily. "What about the guns?"

"We've been over that." Shane reminded her. "Daryl, Sutton, Rick and I are carrying. We can't have people popping off rounds every time a tree rustles."

"It's not the trees I'm worried about."

"Say somebody fires at the wrong moment, a herd happens to be passing by. See, then it's game over for all of us. So you need to get over it." Andrea glared at Shane as Daryl began to explain the grid of the map.

"The idea is to take the creek up about five miles, turn around and come back down the other side." He said. "Chances are she'll be by the creek. It's her only landmark."

"Stay quiet and stay sharp." Rick reminded everybody. "Keep space between you but always stay within sight of each other."

"Everybody assemble your packs." I grabbed a bookbag from the RV and began to load up on water. Daryl came over to me and handed me a bag of trail mix.

"I'm fine." I muttered as I tossed a round of bullets into the bookbag too and hanging another clip to my belt. Daryl kept quiet and continued to hold the bag out to me, waiting for me to take it from him. I laughed. "Daryl Dixon. Being nice to someone. Thought the day would never come." I took the bag from him and put it in my bookbag and zipped it up. Daryl and I took the lead with the others closely behind us. We headed to the creek like Daryl said we would start when we came across a campsite. Rick signaled everyone to stop and be quiet.

"She could be in there."

"Could be a whole bunch of things in there." Daryl said. We slowly made our way to the site. Daryl had his crossbow up, ready to fire. I unbuckled my bow from my belt and gripped it in my left hand, my right hand ready to grab an arrow from my quiver at a second's notice. We stopped at the edge of the campsite and Daryl put his crossbow down and pulled out his knife. He looked at me and I pulled an arrow and nicked it in the bow, raising it slightly and pulling a little on the string. I nodded to him, letting him know I had his back as he made his way to the tent. Daryl tried to look inside without lifting the flap but couldn't see anything.

"Carol." Rick called to Carol in a hushed whisper and she ran over to us. "Call out softly. If she's in there, yours is the first voice she should hear."

"Sophia, sweetie," Carol called out. "Are you in there?" Daryl was position at the entrance of the tent, knife in hand ready to attack if needed. "Sophia, it's Mommy. Sophia. We're all here, baby. It's Mommy." Daryl began to raise the flap of the tent and I raised my bow higher and pulled the string tighter. He climbed inside the tent as Rick and Shane made their way to it. They gagged as they approached it, coughing at the smell of rotting flesh. "Daryl? Daryl?" Daryl came back out.

"It ain't her." He announced.

"What's in there?" Andrea asked.

"Some guy. Did what Jenner said. Opted out. Ain't that what he called it?" Church bells began to ring in the distant and we all looked at each other in shock. Rick located the direction of the sound and took off with us behind him. He stopped and looked around, losing his sense of direction.

"What direction?" Shane asked.

"I think that way." Rick said. "I'm pretty sure."

"Damn, it's hard to tell out here."

"If we heard them, maybe Sophia did too." Carol said.

"Someone's ringing those bells, maybe calling others." I said.

"Or signaling they found her." Andrea suggested.

"She could be ringing them herself." Rick added. "Come on." We raced off into the woods again and came across a meadow with a big white church in the middle of it.

"That can't be it." Shane said. "Got no steeple, no bells." Rick ignored him and continued his path to the church. "Rick." We climbed the steps to the closed red doors and Rick, Daryl, Shane and I got into formation, ready to take out whatever was inside. Rick pushed opened the door and inside three walkers were spread out, sitting down. They all turned to us and snarled before getting up and making their way to us. Rick took the one on the left, Shane got the one at the front and Daryl took care of the one to the far right. The bells began to ring again and we all rushed outside to the left of the church and looked up to see a speaker. Glen opened the box and pulled the spark plug and the ring instantly stopped.

"I'm gonna go back in for a bit." Carol said in a disappointed tone. The rest of us gathered up by a tree while Rick and Shane went off to talk things through. Shane came back to us with Rick bringing up the rear.

"Y'all gonna follow the creek bed back, okay?" Shane ordered. "Daryl, you're in charge." I looked at him a disapproving look.

"Excuse me?" I said.

"He doesn't mean that." Rick said. "Sutton, you're in charge." I gave him a chesire cat smile.

"I feel loved." Shane looked at Rick for an explanation.

"You can't underestimate a woman." Rick whispered to him.

"That boy learns quickly." I said, buckling my bow back to my belt. Shane shook his head disapprovingly but continued with orders.

"Me and Rick, we're just gonna hang back, search this area another hour or so just to be thorough."

"You're splitting us up." Daryl said. "You sure?"

"Yeah, we'll catch up to you."

"I want to stay too." Carl said. "I'm her friend." Rick and Shane exchanged looks before looking at Lori to make the final decision.

"Just be careful, okay?" Lori said, giving her son a hug.

"I will."

"When did you start growing up?" Rick and Lori exchanged their goodbyes as Carol came out to join us.

"Here, take this." Rick pulled his gun from his holster and handed it to Lori. "Remember how to use it?"

"I'm not taking your gun and leaving you unarmed." Lori insisted.

"Here, got a spare." Daryl said, handing a small revolver to her. "Take it." Lori reluctantly took it from him and I began to lead the group back to the highway.

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Daryl and I were in the lead with Carol and Lori bringing up the rear. It was silent among us except for the crunching of the leaves below our feet and the birds chirping above our heads. I looked over at Daryl a few times to catch him looking away from me after running his eyes along my body. I always smiled and continued walking. A gunshot sounded in the distant behind us and we stopped to look in the direction, expecting more gunshots to be heard but none came. After a few moments of listening, I was certain no more gunshots would come.

"Come on, let's keep moving. There's only so many hours of daylight left." I said.

"Shouldn't we go back?" Lori questioned me. "What if they're in trouble?"

"It was one gunshot, Lori, I'm sure they're fine. Now let's go." I turned and began to walk again, Lori reluctantly following us. We walked for another ten minutes when Andrea broke the silence.

"You still worrying about it?" Andrea asked and I revolved around to see Lori staring through the trees again.

"It was a gunshot." Lori said.

"Yes." I agreed. "We all heard it. We ain't stupid like you."

"Sutton." Daryl whispered my name beside me and I almost shivered at the way my name fell off his tongue.

"Why one? Why just one gunshot?" Lori asked.

"Maybe they took down a walker."

"Please don't patronize me. You know Rick wouldn't risk a gunshot to put down one walker. Or Shane. They'd do it quietly."

"Shouldn't they have caught up with us by now?" Carol murmurmed the question. Daryl and I exchanged looks.

"There's nothing we can do about it anyway." Daryl said. "Can't run around these woods chasing echoes."

"So what do we do?" Lori asked.

"Same as we've been." I said. "Beat the bush for Sophia, work our way back to the highway."

"I'm sure they'll hook up with us back at the RV." Andrea said before turning to Carol. "I'm sorry for what you're going through. I know how you feel."

"I suppose you do." Carol said, giving Andrea a weak smile. "Thank you. The though of her out here by herself...it's the not knowing that's killing me. I just keep hoping and praying she doesn't wind up like Amy." Andrea looked at Carol in disbelief that she said that about her sister. Carol gasped when she realized what she said. "Oh god. That's the worst thing I ever said."

"Damn straight." I agreed.

"Sutton." Daryl hushed me. Andrea shook her head to clear the thoughts of her sister away.

"We're all hoping and praying with you, for what it's worth."

"I'll tell you what it's worth-not a damn thing. It's a waste of time all this hoping and praying."

"Daryl!" It was my turn to hush him but he continued.

"'Cause we're gonna locate that little girl, she's gonna be just fine. Am I the only one zen around here?"

"Daryl!" He scoffed and took lead again.

"Good lord." We all followed behind him.

"How much further?" Lori asked Daryl.

"Not far. Maybe a hundred yards. As the crow flies."

"Too bad we're not crows." Andrea muttered. My foot caught in a root and I began to fall but Daryl's arm was there to catch me and pull me up before I hit the ground.

"Watch where you're walking."

"Well, thanks for helping me." I snapped at him in the same condescending tone that he gave me. We walked a few steps before he spoke again.

"You're welcome." Andrea screamed about ten yards to our right and we all turned and ran toward her. From the distant, as I reached behind me to grab an arrow from the quiver, a walker was hovering over Andrea but she managed to keep it away from her with her feet planted on its chest. Thudding noises sounded a tan and black thoroughbred with a woman on its back and a baseball bat in her hand came out of the trees and slammed the bat into the walker's head like it was a baseball and pulled her horse to a stop.

"Lori!" The chick called out. "Lori Grimes!"

"I'm Lori." Lori said stepping up to the horse.

"Rick sent me. You've got to come now."

"What?"

"There's been an accident. Carl's been shot. He's still alive but you've got to come now." Lori just stood there looking at the girl not knowing what to do. "Rick needs you. Just come." Lori began to take off her backpack and start to walk to the horse but Daryl stopped her.

"Whoa whoa whoa." He protested. "We don't know this girl. You can't get on that horse." Lori ignored him and climbed onto the horse behind the chick.

"Rick said that you had others on the highway, that big traffic snarl? Backtrack to Fairburn Road. Two miles down is our farm. You'll see the mailboc. The name is Greene. Hyah!" The chick turned the horse around and galloped off into the sunset. The walker wheezed as it sat up.

"Shut up." Daryl raised his crossbow and fired an arrow into the walker's head.

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"Shot?" Dale exclaimed when we got back to the highway and told him what happened. "What do you mean shot?"

"I don't know, Dale." Glen said. "I wasn't there. "All I know that this chick rode out of nowhere like Zorro on a horse and took Lori." Dale turned to Daryl.

"You let her?"

"Climb down out of my asshole, man." Daryl snapped. "Rick sent. She knew Lori's name and Carl's." Dale looked over at Andrea.

"I heard screams. Was that you?" Andrea ignored him and made her way to the RV.

"She got attack by a walker." I explained. "It was a close call."

"Andrea, are you all right?" Andrea turned and glared at Dale before heading into the RV, slamming the door behind her.

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"I won't do it." Carol protested when we told her that we should start heading to the farm the Rick and Lori went to. "We can't just leave."

"Carol, the group is split. We're scattered and weak." Dale tried to reason with her.

"What if she comes back and we're not here? It could happen."

"If Sophia found her way back and we were gone, that would be awful." Andrea said.

"Ok, we got to plan for this." Daryl stated. "I say tomorrow morning is soon enough to pull up stakes. Give us a chance to rig a big sign, leave her some supplies. I'll hold here tonight, stay with the RV."

"If the RV is staying, I am too." Dale said.

"If Dale is staying then so am I." I said. Ever since I joined the group, Dale has been a father figure to me. Always there for me, always watching out for me though he doesn't do it as often lately since he now has Andrea to look after, I still look up to him. It would feel wrong just to leave him.

"Thank you." Carol whispered. "Thank you three."

"I'm in too." Andrea jumped in.

"Well, if you're all staying then I'm-" Glen tried to speak but Dale cut him off.

"Not you, Glen. You're going." Dale ordered. "Take Carol's Cherokee."

"Me? Why is it always me?"

"You have to find this farm, reconnect with out people and see what's going on but most important, you have to get T-Dog there. This is not an option. That cut has gone from bad to worse. He has a very serious blood infection. Get him to that farm. See if they have any antibiotics." Daryl looked around for his bike and walked over to it and pulled out a bag of prescriptions from his bag. He walked back to us and set the prescriptions on the hood of the cherokee and began to dig through them.

"Why'd you wait till now to say anything?" Daryl demanded the rhetorical question. "Got my brother's stash. Crystal, X. Don't need that. Got some kick ass painkillers." He tossed a bottle to Glen. "Oxycycline." He tossed another bottle to Dale. "Not the generic stuff neither. It's first class. Merle got the clap on occasion."


	2. Chapter 2

I sat on the hood of the car with my bow in my land hand as I gazed around the night sky. Dale was ontop of the RV keeping watch. The door to the RV opened and Daryl came out, crossbow on his back, gun in his belt, looking hot as ever.

"I'm going to take a walk." He annouced up to Dale. "Shine some light in the forest. If she's out there, give her something to look out."

"I'll come too." I said, jumping off the car.

"Be careful, Sutton." Dale said.

"I always am." I began to walk down from the highway and into the forest, eager to actually be moving, with Daryl behind me. The forest was black and silent. A little way into it we reached a fork in the earth path and we decided to take the left path. We walked in silence, our eyes on the ground most of the time but occasionally flickered over to one another. Every now and then a ray of moonlight through the branches above lit a spot on the ground. I could hear running water and thought of the creek we were walking along before. I kept looking over my shoulder making sure no walkers were behind us. "You really think we're gonna find Sophia?"

"You got that look on your face same as everybody else." Daryl scoffed and my head snapped in his direction, my blue eyes searching his face for an explanation. "What the hell is wrong with you people? We just started looking."

"Well, do you?"

"It ain't the mountains of Tibet. It's Georgia. She could be holed up in a farmhouse somewhere. People get lost and they survive. It happens all the time."

"She's only 12."

"Hell, I was younger than her and I got lost. Nine days in the woods eating berries, wiping my ass with poison oak."

"They found you?"

"My old man was off on a bender with some waitress. Merle was doing another stint in juvie. Didn't even know I was gone. I made my way back though. Went straight into the kitchen and made myself a sandwhich. No worse for wear. Except my ass itched something awful." I couldn't help but laugh through a closed mouth. At least I tried to stop from laughing but I was unsuccessful.

"That is a terrible story." I laughed again and this Daryl joined in with me, letting out a smooth, gravely huff.

"Only difference is Sophia's got people looking for her. I call that an advantage." A rustling noise sounded to the right of us and Daryl immediately raised his crossbow and stood in front of me, looking in the direction of the noise. I slowly yanked an arrow from my quiver and placed the end of it to the bow string. He slowly made his way through the forest towards the sound with me behind him, trending softly over the forest floor. We came across a camp site that looked abandoned for quite some time. The tree tops shivered, the leaves whispering to one another and we made our way to the tree in the middle of the camp. "What the hell?" We approached the tree and found a walker dangling from a branch with a rope around its neck, arm extended, snapping its jaws at us. Its legs from the knee down were torn apart to the part where there was nothing left of the legs. Daryl discovered a note on the tree and began to read it. "Got bit. Fever hit. World gone to shit. Might as well quit. Dumbass didn't know enough to shoot himself in the head. Turned himself into a big swinging piece of bait. And a mess." I didn't mind looking at it but I guess the sight of the walker hanging up there and being torn apart triggered a mechanism in my stomach. My stomach tossed and turned, throwing around all the stomach acid in me. I could feel it wanting to escape my stomach as it burned my chest. I groaned and looked down at the ground. "You all right?"

"Trying not to puke."

"Go ahead if you gotta."

"No, I'm fine. Let's just talke about something else for a minute. How did you learn to shoot?"

"How did _you _learn to shoot?"

"I asked you first."

"Gotta eat. That's one thing these walkers and us have in common. I guess it's the closest he's been to food since he turned. Hanging up there like a big pinata. The other geeks came and ate all the flesh off his legs." That did it. The stomach acid scorched my throat and I throw up. I coughed and stood back up.

"I thought we were changing the subject."

"Call that payback for laughing about my itchy ass." I glared at him and wiped my mouth.

"There wasn't a lot that came up."

"Huh. Let's head back."

"Wait." Daryl stopped and turned to me. I raised my bow and pulled back the string and fired the arrow into the walker's head.

"Waste of an arrow."

"It wasn't a waste if it was worth it. Come on." I started walking back to the highway and Daryl fell into pace beside me. We walked in silence for a couple of minutes until he spoke up.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Depends on the question."

"Do you believe in love?" I looked over at him in shock. Did Daryl Dixon really ask me if I believe in _love? _"Just a question." I sighed.

"No. I don't believe in love. It's all chemicals in the brain. The brain decides when you fall for someone, the brain tells you when you want to have sex or when to be jealous. You never really get to decide for yourself."

"But somewhere in all those chemicals, you have some actions to make. Don't you have a choice to make those actions?" I looked over at him, knowing that he was right.

"Come on. I don't like being out here at night."

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We rode out to the farm the next morning. It was on the other side of the forest, secluded from the rest of the world. There were pastures with cows fenced in. A barn off in the distant and stables behind the two story white house. The rest of the group had made camp under some trees when we approached them. We pulled up to the white house and parked in the front lawn. I climbed out of the RV as Rick, Lori and T-Dog came out of the house with a few other people behind them.

"How is he?" Dale asked Rick and Lori, coming out of the RV behind me.

"He'll pull through, thanks to Hershel and his people." Lori said.

"And Shane." Rick added. "We'd have lost Carl if not for him." Dale stepped forward to hug Rick and Carol went over to hug Lori.

"How'd it happen?" Dale asked.

"Hunting accident. That's all-just a stupid accident."

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"How long has this girl been lost?" Hershel asked as we huddled around the Cherokee, looking at a map.

"This'll be day three." Rick said.

"County survey map." Maggie, a name I came to learn, said, pointing to the map. "Shows terrain and elevations.

"This is perfect." Rick said. "We can finally get this thing organized. We'll grid the whole area, start searching in teams."

"Not you." Hershel protested. "Not today. You gave three units of blood. You wouldn't be hiking five minutes in this heat before passing out." He turned and looked at Shane. "And your ankle-push it now, you'll be laid up for a month, no good to anybody."

"Guess it's just me and Sutton." Daryl said. "I say we head up to this creek, work our way from there."

"I can still be useful." Shane said. "I'll drive up to the interstate and see if Sophia wandered back."

"All right, tomorrow then." Rick insisted. "We'll start doing this right."

"That means we can't have our people out there with just knives. They need the gun training we've been promising them."

"I'd prefer you not carrying guns on my property." Hershel said. "We've managed so far without turning this into an armed camp."

"With all do respect, you get a crowd of those things wandering in here..." Rick cut him off.

"Look, we're guests here." Rick butted in. "This is your property and we _will_ respect that." Rick pulled his gun from his holster and laid it down on the hood of the car. Shane sighed and slammed his gun down on the hood too. "First thing's first: Set camp, look for Sophia."

"I hate to be the one to ask, but somebody's got to. What happens if we find her and she's bit? I think we all should be clear on how we handle that."

"You do what has to be done."

"And her mother?" Maggie questioned Rick. "What do you tell her?"

"The truth." Andrea said.

"I'll gather and secure all the weapons." Shane annouced. "Make sure no one's carrying till we're at a practice range off site. I do request one rifleman on lookout. Dale's got experience." We all looked at Hershel for an answer while he pondered the request for a moment.

"Our people would feel safer, less inclined to carry a gun." Hershel slowly nodded his head in approval. "Thank you." Daryl softly nudged my arm with his elbow.

"Come on." He muttered and I followed him to get ready to go search for Sophia again.

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN NNNNNNN

Daryl and I started to head off the farm towards the forest when Dale stopped us.

"Daryl!" Dale called out. "Sutton! I need you to come see something." Daryl and I looked at each other and he sighed as we followed Dale off to one of the wells on the property. The rest of the group crowded around the well and we looked down into it to see a fat ass, wrinkling looking walker hissing and growling in the water. "Looks like we've got us a swimmer."

"How long do you think it's been down there?" Glenn asked.

"Long enough to grow gills." Andrea answered.

"We can't leave it in there. God knows what it's doing to the water." Lori said.

"We got to get it out." Shane annouced.

"Easy. Put a bullet in its head." T-Dog suggested. "I'll get a rope."

"Whoa whoa, guys. No." Maggie protested.

"Why not?" Glenn asked. "It's a good plan."

"It's a stupid plan." Andrea snapped. "If that thing hasn't contaminated the water yet, blowing its brains out will finish the job."

"She's right." Shane agreed. "Can't risk it."

"What about an arrow?" Daryl asked.

"Brain could still get into the water." I rejected the idea.

"So it has to come out alive?" T-Dog asked.

"So to speak." Shane said.

"How do we do that?" Glenn asked. Everybody looked over at me.

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"Have I mentioned that I really like your new haircut?" I asked Shane as he tightened the roped around me with me sitting on the edge of the well. "You have a nice shaped head."

"Don't worry about it, Sutton." Shane said. "We're gonna get you out of here in one piece."

"Living piece. That living part is important."

"This is insane." Daryl said. "You can't just lower her down in here."

"I agree with you there, Daryl, this is insane but I'm the lightest out of y'all." Everybody lined up and grabbed hold of the rope. Daryl was in the front, gripping the rope so tightly that his knuckles turned white. "Nice and slow, please."

"We got you, Sutton." I internally moaned at the way my name slipped off his tongue.

"Oh, you people are crazy." Maggie stated as she stood off to the side, her arms over her chest.

"You want to get it out of your well or not?" Shane questioned her.

"Give us an eye there, Maggie." Dale ordered. I whimpered as I dropped into the well, the rope supporting me. I looked up at the sunlight, my gut telling me that this might be the last time I see it. I looked down and grimaced at the sight of the walker.

"Oh, God, it looks even uglier up close." I moaned.

"Don't look at it." I heard Shane say.

"Kind of have to." The familiar death smell clogged my synuses and I coughed. "It smells even worse too."

"Don't smell it."

"Once again, kind of have to." I held the lasso in my right hand, clinging to the rope that was holding me with my left.

"Doing ok?" Maggie asked me.

"Oh, yeah, I'm doing wonderful. Splendid. Best day of my life. It's not everyday you get lowered into a well to lasso a walker. Lovin' every second of it."

"Little lower. Little more." The walker snarled up at me as I got closer to it and the closer I got to it the more fear I felt and the more I wanted to pull up and curl up into Daryl's arms so he could protect me. Then the worse of the worst happened. The rope jerked and I suddenly fell a foot. The others yelled up top and then I fell to the point where my ass was about an inch above the walker's head. I screamed, fear taking over me as I kicked at the walker to get him away from me. The walker snatched at my legs, its jaws snapping, ready to tear and render my flesh and for a second, I could have sworn I felt teeth graze my leg. I was yelling and shouting and crying and screaming. I had never been so scared in my life.

"Get me out of here!" I frantically kicked my legs around to keep the walker away from me and to get it off of me. "Get it off. Get off. Get off! Get me out!" I gripped the rope tightly with both hands. "Oh my god. Oh my god. Guys, get me out! Daryl!" I felt a little reassurance behind his name but it quickly resided when the walker continued to frantically reach for me. "Come on, you guys. Get me out! Oh god. Oh god. Oh my god! Get me out of here!" I felt myself being lifted up, out of the walkers reach and I continued to cry and whimper to myself. "Get me out. Get me out. Come on. Come on. Get me out of here!"

"Pull her up! Pull her up!" The group yelled to each other.

"Sutton!" Daryl yelled out to me.

"Daryl!" I called back to him.

"Pull her up!" The others continued to yell. "Pull her up!" The edge of the well was finally in my reach and I scrambled to grab onto it and heaved myself over the edge. Daryl was over to my side in a second's notice, pulling me over. I climbed into his lap, wrapping my arms around his neck and buring my face into the crook of his neck. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me tight against him, planting his face into my blonde hair.

"Are you ok?" Daryl whispered in my ear. I quickly nodded and pulled myself tighter against his chest. I never felt more safe than I did right there in his arms. His arms were like fortess around me.

"Back to the drawing board." Dale muttered. I looked up at him and stood up, leaving my protection down below.

"Says you." I snapped, handing him the rope that was tied around the walker before walking away.


	3. Chapter 3

"All right." Rick said as we all crowded around the car hood to look at the map. "Everyone's getting new search grids today. If she made it as far as the farmhouse Daryl found, she might have gone further east than we've been so far."

"I'd like to help." A farmer's boy came walking up to us and Rick turned to look at him. "I know the area pretty well and stuff."

"Hershel's ok with this?"

"Yeah, yeah. He said I should ask you."

"All right then. Thanks."

"Nothing about what Daryl found screams Sophia to me." Shane insisted. "Anyone could have been holed up in that farmhouse."

"Anybody includes her, right?" Andrea said.

"Whoever slept in that cupboard was no bigger than yay-high." Daryl said.

"It's a good lead."

"Maybe we'll pick up her trail again." Rick said.

"No maybe about it." Daryl grumbled. "I'm gonna borrow horse, head up to this ridge right her, take a bird's-eye view of the whole grid. If she's up there, I'll spot her."

"Good idea." T-dog said. "Maybe you'll see your Chupacabra up there too." I let out a light laugh as I recalled the story Daryl told us first night at camp.

"Chupacarba?" Rick questioned him.

"You never heard of a Chupacabra?" I asked.

"Our first night at camp, Daryl tells us that the whole thing reminds him of a time when he went squirrel hunting and he saw a Chupacabra." The farmer boy laughed.

"What are you braying at, Jackass?" Daryl snapped at him.

"You believe in a blood sucking dog?" Rick asked.

"Do you believe dead people walking around?" I laughed as Daryl retorted. The farmer boy reached for a rifle on the hood of the car but Rick quickly stopped him.

"Hey hey. Ever fire one before?"

"Well, if I'm going out, I want one." The farmer boy insisted.

"Yeah and people in hell want slurpees." Daryl shot back and once again I laughed. Daryl was on fire today. Daryl stalked off to the stables to get a horse.

"You gonna take any areas, Sutton?" Rick asked me.

"Naw, I think I had enough of walkers for a couple of days." I said, remembering the well incident from yesterday. "Think I'll stick close to camp today, maybe help Lori out with laundry or something."

"Suit yourself."

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It was getting close to evening and I sat on the ground with my back up against a tree. I fiddled with my arrows, making sure each one was clean and each end was sharp enough to pierce the skin. Everybody was doing their own thing around the camp with Andrea on top of the RV playing look out. It was beautiful and peaceful and it almost felt like all hell didn't break lose. A gentle breeze rolled through camp, making the leaves whisper to us above our heads. The trees swayed slightly and every once in awhile, ray of sunlight broke through the tree canopy and into the camp. I would have said it was a perfect evening until...

"Walker!" Andrea yelled from the RV rooftop. "Walker." I stood up and squinted my eyes to see a figure in the tree line.

"Just the one?" Rick asked.

"I bet I can nail it from here." Andrea picked up the rifle and held it to her shoulder, looking through the scope.

"No no, Andrea. Put the gun down." Andrea looked down at Rick in disbelif.

"Neve underestimate a woman."

"Hey! That's my line." I snapped but I agreed with Rick. We couldn't risk a gunshot and attract more walkers.

"You'd best let us handle this." Shane said, grabbing his pick ax.

"Shane! Hold up." Rick said, trying to stop Shane and T-Dog who started to make their way across the pasture to the walker. "Hershel wants to deal with walkers."

"What for, Man? We got it covered." I swung my quiver over my shoulders and picked up my bow and raced after Shane, T-Dog and Glenn with Rick behind me. I felt like an antelope running through the field as I struggling to keep my feet running with the twigs and grass tangling around my ankles. I had to keep myself leaping over everything. As we approached the walker, I pulled an arrow out and raised my bow up, stopping with the others. Rick raised his gun and pointed it at the walker's head as it looked up at us.

"Is that Daryl?" Glenn asked.

"That's the third time you've pointed that thing at my head." Daryl growled at Rick as he swayed unevenly on his feet, his crossbow dangling from his right hand. "You gonna pull the trigger or what?" Rick lowered his gun and we all shook our heads. A gunshot rang out and Daryl's head got thrown back as he dropped to the ground. My insides felt like they turned to ash and my legs felt like they turned to jell-o.

"No!" Rick shouted back at the camp, knowing that it was Andrea who fired.

"Daryl!" I screamed, coming to my senses as I rushed to Daryl's side. I crouched down beside him and tilted his head over to see a red graze mark on his left temple. I sighed with relief. I took off my bow and quiver and handed them to Glenn as I draped Daryl's left arm over my shoulders and Rick did the same to his right arm.

"I was kidding." Daryl rasped as we hostled him up and started dragging him across the field. Dale and Andrea came running at us.

"Oh my god." Andrea breathed. "Oh my god. Is he dead?"

"Get out of here you crazy bitch." I snapped at her.

"Sutton!" Rick barked at me. "Unconscious. You just grazed him."

"But look at him." Glenn exclaimed, picking up Daryl's crossbow. "What the hell happened? He's wearing ears." I looked down to see a string of walker ears around Daryl's neck.

"Let's keep that to ourselves."

"Guys isn't this Sophia's?" T-Dog asked and we turned to him and saw him holding up a ragged doll.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

"I found it washed up on the creek bed right there." Daryl said, laying on his right side on the bed as Hershel sewed his wound up on his left side. Rick had a map laid out in front of him so Daryl could show him all that he went. "She must have dropped it crossing there somewhere."

"Cuts the grid almost in half." Rick said. I sat on the edge of the bed, next to Daryl's head, running my fingers through his thin brown shaggy hair. He glared at me at first but when he slowly relaxed to it.

"Yeah, you're welcome."

"How's he looking?" I asked Hershel as my fingers lingered in Daryl's hair.

"I had no idea we'd be going through the antibotics so quickly. Any idea what happened to my horse?" Hershel questioned Daryl.

"You mean the one that tried to kill me?" He snapped. "If it was smart, it left the country."

"We call that one Nelly, as in nervous Nelly. I could have told you she'd throw you if you'd bothered to ask. It's a wonder you people have survived this long." Yeah, well, I ask myself the same thing every time crazy shit goes down.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I remember falling asleep next to Daryl, watching over him but when I woke up it was more like him watching over me. I opened my eyes to see his blue ones roaming my face. His shirt was off which made it hard not to look at his toned chest muscles.

"Hey." I greeted him with a smile.

"Hey yourself." He said. "You must have been tired. You were snoring over there." I laughed.

"I was not. Stop lying." I batted his nose gently with my finger and he actually broke out into a smile. "How are you feeling?"

"As good as I look."

"Are you hungry? I can go get you some food if you want."

"Carol brought something up already. She brought something for you too."

"You can have it. I'm not hungry." I saw Daryl's eyes flickered down to my stomach and back up to my face.

"When's the last time you ate?" I was reluctant to answer.

"Last week."

"Sutton,"

"There are other people who need the food more than me."

"You need to eat before you collaspe from exhaustion. You need your strength. Your the best shot here." I laughed.

"I doubt that. There's Shane, Rick...there's you."

"The point is you need to eat."

"I don't need someone looking out for me."

"Obviously you do." It was silent for a couple of moments as we stared deep into each other's eyes.

"Thank you."


	4. Chapter 4

I held a bowl of squirrel in my right hand, heading to Daryl's tent where he was resting now. As I approached the tent, Andrea came out and jealousy hit me like running full speed into a brick wall. She saw me and walked over to me.

"Look, I'm really sorry about shooting Daryl." Andrea said.

"Well, if you would have just listened to Rick it wouldn't have happened." I snapped at her. "But instead you let your ego take over and you just had to prove to everyone that you were such a good shot when you still missed." Andrea was looking at me in shock.

"I'm trying to apologize to you and you're going off on me?"

"Yeah, I am. Next time, listen to Rick." Andrea scoffed and pushed past me. I started to make my way to Daryl's tent again and I saw him looking at me through the opening and I knew he just heard the whole conversation. I groaned and knew what I had to do. I turned around and called Andrea back. She stopped and turned to me with a glare in her eyes. "Sorry I called you a crazy bitch." The glare quickly resided and she nodded.

"Apology accepted."

"Your apology is accepted too." I turned and walked into Daryl's tent and sat down next to him. "Hey. I brought you some food." I held out the bowl for Daryl to take but he laid there looking at me.

"Did you eat yet?" He asked me. I ignored the question and continued to hold out the bowl of food for him. We sat there for God knows how long, just staring at each other, waiting for someone to break. It was finally me who broke, knowing that he was right. I took a piece of squirrel from the bowl and plopped it into my mouth, chewing on the tender flesh, never taking my eyes from his. He reluctantly took the bowl from me and began to eat. I smiled at him before getting up and leaving the tent and walking over to the Cherokee where the others were crowded around a map.

"The creek flows south, past that farmhousr Daryl found." I heard Rick say as I approached them. "Maybe Sophia dropped the doll there, the current brought it downstream."

"So what, you think she took this road here and then she went north?" Shane asked.

"Yeah. What's up that way?"

"A housing development." Jimmy said. "It went in maybe ten years ago."

"Take a run up there after gun practice. Speaking of which, Sutton, you want to help supervise the gun training today?"

"When and where?" I smiled.

"I'll hold down the fort here, but take backup. After what went down with Daryl, I don't want anyone going out alone. We stay in pairs."

"I'll take suggestions on a partner." Shane said.

"See how they do on the range, then take your pick. You too, Sutton."

"Oh, I already have my partner."

"Who?"

"Daryl, of course. He's the only person I can trust to have my back." Two girls from the house, Patricia and Beth, came walking over to us.

"We'd like to join you for gun training today." Beth said.

"Hershel's been very clear." Rick said. "Any of you in what we do without his ok."

"He doesn't like it, but he consented."

"Otis was the only one who knew guns." Patricia said with sadness in her voice. "Now that he's gone, we gotta learn to protect ourselves. Her father saw the sense in that."

"No offense, but I'll ask Hershel myself."

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We all sat in the middle of the camp the next morning around the fire as Carol made eggs. No one was talking, it was silent. Silent except for the scrapings of forks against plates and the fire crackling around the logs like firecrackers. Daryl sat in a lawn chair as Carol came around and gave him his second helping of eggs. I sat on the ground beside him, staring into the fire. Daryl got up and looked down at me.

"Take my chair." He murmured. I looked up at him and was about to protest when I realized that it was an order, not a question. And when Daryl Dixon gives an order, there's really no protesting your way out of it. He held out his hand for mine and I grabbed it and he helped me up. I curled up into a ball in his chair and he sat down in my spot. He was about to start eating when he handed his plate to me.

"Daryl-" I began but he cut me off.

"It's not a question, it's an order, Sutton." I sighed and took the plate from him and began to swallow the eggs whole. I didn't realize how hungry I was till now. I could feel Daryl's eyes looking up at me. Once I was done with my eggs, I looked down at him and couldn't help but to smile and laugh at the way he was looking at me. His eyes full of warmth and lust.

"What?"

"Never knew how beautiful you are till now." I let out a light laugh and hung my head, letting my hair fall around my face and my cheeks flush red. Daryl reached up and pulled the loose strands of hair behind my ear.

"Um, guys." I looked up to see Glenn standing up in front of everyone looking nervous as can be. "So...The barn is full of walkers." We all looked at him like he was playing us but he wasn't. Rick was up in seconds walking down to the barn with Shane quickly behind him. The rest of us followed. We didn't even fully approached the barn when I started to here moans and growls from inside. Shane went up and looked in a crack of the barn to investigate before turning to Rick.

"You can't tell me that you're alright with this." Shane snapped at him.

"No, I'm not alright with this." Rick retorted. "But we're guests here. This isn't out land."

"This is our lives!"

"Lower your voice." Glenn hushed him.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea protested.

"It ain't right." Shane said. "Not remotely. Ok, we've either got to go in there, we've got to make things right or we've just got to go. Now we have been talking about Fort Benning for a long time."

"We can't go." Rick insisted.

"Why, Rick? Why?"

"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol said.

"Ok." Shane covered his face with his hands and sighed heavily, trying to control his anger as he tried to explain his theory to Carol. "Ok, I think it's time that we all start to just consider the other possibility."

"We're not leaving Sophia behind." Rick said.

"I'm close to finding this girl." Daryl told Shane. "I just found her damn doll two days ago." Shane giggled as he shook his head at Daryl.

"You found her doll, Daryl." Shane said. "That's what you did. You found a doll."

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about." Daryl was getting dangerously close to Shane and I feared that a fight was about to break out.

"I'm just saying what needs to be said. You get a good lead, it's in the first forty eight hours."

"Shane, stop." Rick ordered.

"Let me tell you something else, man. If she was alive out there and saw you coming all methed out with your buck knife and your geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction." That pushed Daryl over the edge. Daryl lunged at Shane but I was already in the middle of Shane and him before Shane even finished the last word. I pressed my hands against Daryl's chest to push him away from Shane and for a second, I thought I was going to be crushed between Daryl and Shane but Daryl felt my pressure on his chest and immediately backed off, not wanting to hurt me. Rick, Andrea and Lori dealt with Shane, pulling him away from Daryl.

"Back off!"

"Keep your hands off me."

"Now just let me talk to Hershel. Let me figure it out."

"What are you gonna figure out?!" Now Shane took a step aggressively towards Rick and Lori pushed him back. I kept my stance in front Daryl, making he didn't attack Shane or Shane didn't attack him.

"If we're gonna stay, if we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land."

"Hershel sees those things in there as people-sick people-his wife, his stepson." Dale said.

"You knew?"

"Yesterday I talked to Hershel."

"And you waited the night?" Shane questioned him.

"I thought we could survive one more night. We did. I was waiting till this morning to say something. But Glenn wanted to be the one."

"The man is crazy, Rick, if Hershel thinks those things are alive or no." The chains on the barn doors rattled as the walkers inside growled, getting riled by all of our yelling.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

I gripped my bow tightly in my left hand, standing still in the middle of a clearing in the woods, looking at every tree for a squirrel. It was a clear, breezy day and the grass rippled under my feet I as I turned in circles before stopping. A branch snapped behind me and I quickly grabbed an arrow and pulled back on the sting as I quickly swung around to shoot the intruder to only find that it was Daryl. He stopped walking and put his hands up in surrender.

"Sorry to sneak up ya." He murmured as I sighed and put the arrow back into the quiver.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Just wanted to make sure I didn't hurt you between the scruffle I had with Shane today."

"Naw, I'm fine." I turned away from him and I heard him sigh behind me. The grass rustled behind me as Daryl approached me.

"I really can't do this anymore." I was about to ask him do what when he turned me around and slammed his lips against mine. I had to grip Daryl's upper arms to steady myself as all the oxygen came rushing out of me. He nipped at my lower lip and I opened up and he deepened the kiss, greedily. His hands gripped both sides of my face, making sure I wasn't going in where as he intertwined his tongue with mine. He growled with satisfaction as I let out a moan in his mouth. He finally pulled away and we were both left breathing heavily, staring deep into each other's eyes. "You're sleeping in my tent tonight." I slowly nodded, knowing that it was an order not a question.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Daryl and I made it back on the property and saw everyone gathering around the house's porch. Hershel, Rick and Shane were missing though.

"We were supposed to leave a couple hours ago." We heard Andrea say to Glenn.

"Yeah you were." Daryl barked as we approached them. "What the hell?"

"Rick told us he was going out." Carol said.

"Damn it. Isn't anybody taking this seriously? We got us a damn trail."

"Calm down, Daryl." I murmured softly to him. He looked over my shoulder and I turned to see Shane walking to us with the gun bag.

"Oh, here we go. What's all this?"

"You with me, man?" Shane questioned Daryl, handing him a shotgun and Daryl snatched it from him. "Time to grow up. You already got yours?"

"Yeah." Andrea answered. "Where's Dale?"

"He's on his way."

"Thought we couldn't carry." T-dog said as Shane handed him a revovler.

"We can and we have to. Look, it was one thing sitting around here picking daisies when we thought this place was supposed to be safe. But now we know it ain't." He walked over to Glenn and handed him a shotgun. "How about you, man? You gonna protect yours?" Glenn took the shotgun from him. "That's it." Shane looked over at Maggie who was glaring at him. "Can you shoot?"

"Can you stop?" Maggie snapped at him. "You do this, you hand out these guns, my dad will make you leave tonight."

"We have to stay, Shane." Carl said as he walked down from the porch.

"What is this?" Lori came out of the house to see what was going on.

"We ain't going anywhere, ok?" Shane reassured Carl. "Now look, Hershel, he's just gotta understand. Ok? He-Well, he's gonna have to. Now we need to find Sophia. Am I right?" Shane pulled out another revolver and knelt down in front of Carl. "Now I want you to take this. You take it, Carl, and you keep your mother safe. You do whatever it takes. You know how. Go on, take the gun and do it." Lori came flying off the porch steps and pushed her son behind her as she glared down at Shane.

"Rick said no guns. This is not your call. This is not your decision to make."

"Oh shit." T-Dog exclaimed. I looked in the direction of his eyes and saw Jimmy coming out of the trees next to the barn. Two walkers followed him with rope around their necks who were guided by sticks with Hershel and Rick on the other ends of them. Shane dropped the revolver and started running to the barn with Daryl behind him. I ran after Daryl and the others followed behind me.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shane questioned Rick as he approached him.

"Shane, just back off." Rick snapped as he tried to control his walker.

"Why do your people have guns?" Hershel asked.

"Are you kidding me? You see?" Shane shouted to us as he circled the walkers, Hershel and Rick. "You see what they're holding onto?"

"I see who I'm holding onto."

"No, man, you don't."

"Shane, just let us do this and then we can talk." Rick tried to reason with him.

"What you want to talk about, Rick? These things ain't sick. They're not people. They're dead. Ain't gonna feel nothing for them cause all they do, they kill! These things right here, they're the things that killed Amy. They killed Otis. They're gonna kill all of us."

"Shane, shut up!"

"Hey, Hershel man, let me ask you something. Could a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane pulled out his gun and fired three rounds into one of the walker's chest.

"No! Stop it!"

"That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, could they just take that?! Why is it still coming?" He fired another round in it's heart and in its lungs. "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming?" Three more rounds entered the chest.

"Shane, enough."

"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." Shane walked up to the walker and fired a last bullet into its head and casually walked away from it towards the barn doors. "Enough risking our lives for a little girl who's gone! Enough living next to a barn full of things that are trying to kill us. Enough. Rick, it ain't like it was before. Now if y'all want to live, if you want to survive, you got to fight for it! I'm talking about fighting right here, right now." Shane grabbed a pick axe and started banging at the padlock on the barn doors.

"Take the snare pole. Hershel, take the snare pole." Hershel wasn't listening. He was on the ground next to the dead walker, dumbfitted and not knowing what to do. Maggie was at his shoulders, crying, scared of what was just about to go down. "Hershel, listen to me, man, please. Take it now. Hershel! Take it! No, Shane. Do not do this, Brother. Wait!" Shane finally got the padlock off and threw down the pick axe. I didn't know what to do. I had adrenaline running through my veins, trying to make up its mind on fight or flight. I looked at Daryl for an answer and he nodded. I felt like a switch had flipped inside me and the adrenaline took over. I unbuckled my bow from my belt and quickly fumbled for two arrows from my quiver and nicked them both on the bowstring. Raising the bow up, I pulled the string back and waited for the fight to began.

"Don't do it!" Glenn yelled to Shane.

"Please!" Shane ignored everybody and took the board off the barn hinges and started banging on the doors, calling the walkers inside to him. He then pulled out his gun again and took a couple steps back. Andrea and T-Dog came up and took their places among Shane, Daryl and I, raising their guns. The walkers pushed the doors open and growled and hissed at us as they wobbled towards us. I aimed and let go of the bowstring, letting the two arrows whistled through the air, taking out two walkers, side by side. Gunshots rang in my ears as the other walkers began to drop. I pulled out another arrow and shot another one down. Glenn joined the battle line after getting a consent from Maggie. Shane turned to Rick and shot his walker down and Rick just let it fall before Shane turned back to the barn walkers. We finished off the last ones as everyone ran out of ammo. Growling sounded from inside the barn and we all raised our weapons again and reloaded. Feet shuffled as the a figured appeared in the sunlight and we were not prepared for what we saw. Sophia shuffled out of the barn, her rainbow shirt dirty and her white pants now brown. Her cream colored skin was now pale as snow with a red stain on her collarbone. Her short dirty blonde hair was matted which blended in with her dead, sea green eyes. She snapped her jaws at us and started to make her way to us. Carol sobbed and started running to her former daughter but Daryl grabbed her by the waist and pulled her back and she fell to the ground, crying and calling out for her daughter. All of us stood there, dumbfitted, stunned, numb, shock and apologetic. Even Shane had a look of sadness and shock on his face as he hung his head at the sight of Sophia. I dropped my bow and arrow and cover my mouth with my hands as I gasped for breath in shock. Rick seemed like the only one who knew what to do and how to take action. He walked through us and pulled out his gun and pointed it at Sophia's head. He reluctantly pulled the trigger and the walker dropped to the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

We all split ways after the barn incident and I found myself walking across the field to Daryl's campsite, my bow in my left hand and my quiver in my right. I found him sitting with his back against a stone wall, widdling a stick. He looked up to see me coming and immediately stood up and put his knife back into his sheath. I stopped and let him come to me.

"Hey." He whispered to me. I didn't answer. I wasn't even sure if I could talk after what just happened. I wasn't even sure what I was doing here. I just stood there and stared out into space, searching for my voice. "Sutton." My eyes snapped to his and locked on instantly. "Hey, what's wrong?" I didn't even know how to answer that. What do I say?

"I don't know how to answer that." I mumbled, my voice coming out in a hoarse whisper. Daryl raised his left hand and cupped my cheek in his hand, running his thumb under my eye.

"When's the last time you slept?"

"Last week." He sighed.

"First you don't eat now you don't sleep. Come on." He took my bow and quiver from me and set them by the tree before coming back to me and taking me by the hand. He guided me to his tent and I crawled inside and collasped to the ground. He sat in the entrance of the tent and pulled a blanket over me.

"You're not leaving are you?"

"Naw, I'll stay right here." He leaned forward and brushed a strand of hair behind my ear and I drifted into sleep.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

I woke up to see Daryl laying in front of me, his eyes searching my face. His fingers were in my hair, running them gently over my ear, over and over again.

"Sorry, I woke you." Daryl murmured, running his hand down my cheek. "You're just so beautiful when you sleep." I blushed and smiled at the comment.

"How long have I been asleep?" I asked.

"Since yesterday evening." I stared at him in shock.

"Yesterday?!"

"Relax, Sutton, you deserve some rest."

"I didn't want to sleep that long. You could have wanted me to do something instead of laying around being lazy."

"All I wanted you to do was sleep. That's all." I groaned.

"Did I miss anything?"

"Well, Beth went into catatonic shock. Glenn and Rick had to go into town to fetch Hershel. Lori tried to go after Rick but she got into a car accident. Shane saved her. She's alright."

"Unfortunately."

"Sutton." I shrugged my shoulders and gave him an innocent look as he continued. "Hershel, Rick and Glenn got into a fight with a group of people in town and brought back a prisoner."

"A prisoner?"

"Yep." I groaned again and crawled over Daryl and out the tent with him behind me. I grabbed my bow and quiver and started walking back to the farm house. I walked up the steps, set my bow and quiver by the front door and walked into the house to the dining room where everyone was sitting around the table with Rick at the head of the table. I stood in the entrance.

"We're keeping prisoners now are we?"

"We couldn't just leave him behind." Rick explained. "He would've bled out, if he lived that long."

"It's gotten bad in town." Glenn said.

"What do we do with him?" Andrea asked.

"I repaired his calf muscle as best I can, but he'll probably have nerve damage." Hershel said. "Won't be on his feet for at least a week."

"When he is, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road, send him on his way."

"Isn't that the same as leaving for the walkers?" Andrea questioned him as Daryl came into the house and stood beside me.

"He'll have a fighting chance."

"Just gonna let him go?" Shane asked.

"I'm pretty sure he just said that." I retorted.

"But he knows where we are."

"He was blindfolded the whole way here." Rick reassured him. "He's not a threat."

"Not a threat. How many of them were there? You killed three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just ain't gonna come looking?"

"They left him for dead. _No one _is looking."

"We should still post a guard." T-Dog said.

"He's out cold right now, will be for hours." Hershel said.

"You know, I'm gonna go get him some flowers and candy." Shane scoffed as he began to walk towards the front door. "Look at this, folks-we back in FantasyLand."

"You know, we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet." Shane stopped and turned to Hershel. "Let me make this perfectly clear, once and for all-This is my farm. Now I wanted you gone. Rick talked me out of it but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do us both a favor-keep your mouth shut." Shane just sighed and turned to walk out of the house without another word.

"We're not gonna do anything about it today." Rick said. "Let's just cool off." We all departed and went our separate ways.


	6. Chapter 6

"So now that your 'leaving him out on main road' plan didn't work, what are we going to do?" I asked Rick the next day as we all crowded around the camp fire. Daryl was in the barn, trying to get information out of the prisoner, Randall. "We'd all feel better if we knew the plan."

"Is there a plan?" Andrea questioned him.

"Are we gonna keep him here?" Glenn shot another question at Rick.

"We'll know soon enough." Rick said, looking past me at the barn. I turned to see Daryl walking back to us, his crossbow on his back, his bloody right hand clinching the strap.

"Boy there's got a gang, thirty men." Daryl said. "They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead. And our women, they're gonna-" He eyed me most of all before continuing. "They're gonna wish they were."

"What did you do?" Carol asked, looking at his right hand.

"Had a little chat." Daryl answered and he walked away to the other side of the campfire.

"No one goes near this guy. He's a threat. We got to eliminate the threat." Rick said.

"So you're just going to kill him?" Dale questioned him and Rick ignored him.

"It's settled. I'll do it today." Rick strolled away and Dale chased after him as I grabbed a wet rag and made my way over to Daryl and crouched down in front of him.

"Little chat, my ass." I mumbled as I took his hand and began to clean the blood off. He sat there watching me, his hand limp in mine.

"Wanna go hunting?" Daryl asked. I looked up at him and smiled.

"Only if it's with you."

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We were up by Daryl's tent getting ready to go out hunting. I leaned against the tree, pulling out each arrow from my quiver and checking for defects and cleaning them, getting rid of blood stains. Daryl was loading his crossbow with arrows when Dale came walking up across the field. Daryl looked up at him and scoffed as Dale stopped walking.

"The whole point of me coming up here is to get away from you people." Daryl growled.

"Gonna take more than that." Dale said. Daryl looked over at me.

"Did you send him?" I held my hands up in defeat.

"Don't look at me. This is new to me." I defended myself and Daryl returned to his work.

"Sutton's not the only one that's concerned about you, your new role in the group." Dale explained.

"Oh man, I don't need my head shrunk." Daryl sighed. "This group's broken. I'm better off fending for myself." I stared at him as he spoke, wondering if my name even crossed his mind.

"You act like you don't care."

"Yeah, it's 'cause I don't." Dary grabbed his jacket and swung it over his shoulders, sliding his arms into the sleeves.

"So live or die, you don't care what happens to Randall?"

"Nope."

"Then why not stand with me, try to save the kid's life if it really doesn't matter one way or the other?"

"Didn't peg you for a desperate son of a bitch."

"Your opinion makes a difference."

"Man, ain't nobody looking at me for nothing."

"Carol is, and I am. Right now. And I know that you're the first person Sutton goes to for an answer." Daryl looked over at me closely before swinging his crossbow onto his left shoulder. "And you obviously-you have Rick's ear."

"Rick just looks to Shane. Let him."

"You care about what happened to Sofia, cared what it meant to the group. Torturing people? That isn't you. You're a decent man. So is Rick. Shane-he's different."

"Why's that? 'Cause he killed Otis?"

"He tell you that?"

"He told some story-how Otis covered him, saved his ass. He showed up with the dead guy's gun. Rick ain't stupid. If he didn't figure that out, it's 'cause he didn't wanna. It's like I said-group's broken." Daryl began to walk to the forest and I started to follow him when Dale called me back.

"Sutton!" I turned to him and sighed. "What's your decision on this?" I shuffled my feet in the dirt and shifted my weight on my legs and cleared my throat before answering him.

"I honestly don't care, Dale." I said.

"How could you say that? Your a Christian woman, Sutton. Jesus once said, 'Love one another as I h-"

"As I have loved you. Yes, I know. But think about it, Dale, he knows where the farm is. He could come back and kill us if we let him go. A part of me is saying not to kill him. But the other stronger part is telling me, 'More than half the population is gone so what's one more dead guy?'" I turned and walked into the forest with Daryl behind me, leaving Dale to ponder on my words.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Daryl and I made our way back to the farmhouse around dusk with a couple of squirrels and a rabbit. I found myself laughing as Daryl kept staring at me with lust in his eyes as we made our way up the porch steps. He set his crossbow down by the door and I set my bow and quiver next to his weapon. He kissed my cheek, making me blush, as he opened the door for me and I walked into the living room to see everyone sitting, waiting for the meeting to begin. Daryl and I stood off to the side and stared into the living room.

"So how do we do this?" Glenn asked. "Just take a vote?"

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea asked.

"How about majority rules?" Lori suggested.

"Well, let's-let's just see where everybody stands then we can talk through the options." Rick said.

"Well, where I sit, there's only one way to move forward." Shane stated.

"Killing him, right?" Dale objected. "I mean why bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing."

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick explained.

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group-maye just me and Glenn." Glenn didn't say anything. He just sat there looking at Dale with a guilty look and Dale knew that Glenn had changed his mind.

"Look, I-I think you're pretty much right about everything, all the time, but this-"

"They've got you scared."

"He's not one of us. And we've-we've lost too many people already."

"Love one another as I have loved you." I stated, stepping forward to the circle. "John 13:34-35. He may not be one of us but he's still a human being like us. And the last time I checked, America didn't have the death penalty."

"It also didn't have the walking dead." Shane retorted.

"But we can't just slaughter him like a pig. But we can't keep him here. That's my final word on it. I stand with Dale for the most part but I can go either way." Dale turned to Maggie.

"How about you?" He asked her. "Do you agree with this?" Maggie was quiet for a moment before addressing Rick.

"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?" She asked.

"Just another mouth to feed." Daryl rasped.

"It may be a lean winter." Hershel added.

"We could ration better." Lori suggested.

"Well, he could be an asset." Dale objected. "Give him a chance to prove himself."

"Put him to work?" Glenn offered.

"We're not letting him walk around." Rick ordered.

"We could put an escort on him." Maggie said.

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?" Shane asked.

"Sutton's hell of a shot." Glenn said.

"Daryl's better and he ain't got the patient to be an escort." I shot down that idea.

"I'll do it." Dale said hastily.

"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy." Rick said.

"He's right." Lori agreed. "I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up."

"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor." Andrea said.

"Look, say we let him join us, right?" Shane pointed out a scenerio. "Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice. We let out guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his thirty men."

"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt?" Dale questioned him. "If we do this, we're saying there's no hope. Rule of law is dead. There is no civilization."

"Oh my god."

"Could you drive him further out?" Hershel asked. "Leave him like you planned?"

"You barely came back this time." Lori said. "There are walkers. You could break down. Y-You could get lost."

"Or get ambushed." Daryl added.

"They're right." Glenn said. "We should not put our own people at risk."

"If you go through with it, how would you do it?" Patricia asked. "Would he suffer?" Rick looked to Shane for an answer.

"We could hang him, right?" Shane said. "Just snap his neck."

"I thought about that." Rick said. "Shooting may be more humane."

"And what about the body?" T-dog asked. "Do we bury him?"

"Hold on, hold on." Dale protested. "You're talking about this like it's already decided."

"You've been talking all day, going around in circles." Daryl said. "You just wanna go around in circles again?"

"This is a young man's life and it is worth more than a five minute conversation! Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him and now look at us. He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're afraid of?"

"We all know what needs to be done." Shane said.

"No, Dale is right." Rick said. "We can't leave any stone unturned here. We have a responsiblity-"

"So what's the other solution?" Andrea asked.

"Let Rick finish." Lori ordered.

"Let Andrea speak." I snapped at Lori and Daryl grabbed my arm and gently pulled me back.

"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet." Andrea continued. "I wish we could."

"So let's work on it!" Dale yelled.

"We are." Rick said.

"Stop it." Carol cried. "Just stop it. I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this. Please decide-either of you, both of you-but leave me out."

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself-there's no difference." Dale said.

"All right, that's enough." Rick said. "Anybody that wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." No one said anything. We just stood there in silence waiting for someone to break through the silence.

"You once said that we don't kill the living. Well, that was before the living tried to kill us."

"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were, the world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's...harsh. It's-it's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't wanna live in and I don't believe that any of you do. I can't. Please. Let's just do what's right. Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me?"

"He's right." Andrea said.

"I agree." I said. "We should try to find another way."

"Anybody else?" Rick asked, looking around the room. Nobody answered. It was three against ten.

"Are y'all gonna watch too?" Dale questioned the ten people. "No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being. Whoa. I won't be a party to it." Dale began to walk out of the room but stopped but Daryl and placed his hand on his shoulder and looked Daryl in the eye. "This group _is _broken."

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I leaned against the wooden fence as night fell over the land. I looked in the direction of the barn as a lantern glowed inside. I scoffed and turned my back to the barn and began walking back to camp. Did I make the right choice of standing by Dale's side? Or should I be in the barn with Daryl supporting his choice? My thoughts were interrupted by a scream from the field and it sent chills down my spine because I recognized that voice automatically.

"Dale." I whispered in shock. I began to run in the direction of the scream with the others closely behind me. "Dale!"

"Dale!" Andrea echoed. My heart pounded and my legs filled with adrenaline as I pushed myself to the full limit, running as fast as I could through the tall grass. As I approached the middle of the field, the screams intensified as I saw a walker on top of Dale on the ground, Dale's stomach ripped open.

"Dale!" Daryl was the first one to arrived and he tackled the walker off of Dale, stabbing it in the head. I skidded to a halt and fell to the ground and I started choking on my own breath as I saw Dale's stomach. His stomach and insides were hanging out and he struggled to breath as he was slowly dying. My stomach tossed and turned and my heart stuttered as tears flowed down my face and I gripped Dale's hand with my shaking hands. The others crowded around us.

"Listen to me. Just listen to me." Rick said as Dale moaned in pain. "Ok, hold on now. Get Hershel!" Andrea crouched down beside me and cried out. "We need blood. We got to operate now."

"Hang on, Dale." Andrea whispered to him.

"Listen to me. Ok, listen to my voice. All right? Please. Hershel! We need Hershel!" I swallowed my tears and gripped Dale's hand tighter.

"Look at me." I whispered to him.

"Dale, we're gonna help. We're here. Just hold on."

"What happened?" Hershel's voice sounded behind me.

"What can we do?"

"Dale, it's gonna be okay." I lied.

"Can we move him?"

"He won't make the trip." Hershel said.

"You have to do the operation here. Glenn, get back to the house."

"Rick." I sobbed harder as I realized that Dale wasn't going to make it. I buried my face into Dale's hand and cried out.

"No!" I cried. "No! God, please, no!" Rick pulled out his gun and crouched down beside Dale. "No! Rick, please,"

"He's suffering." Andrea reasoned with me. I wailed as Rick pointed the gun at Dale's head. "Do something. Oh god." Rick's hand shook as he tried to keep the gun steady. Daryl walked over to Rick and took the gun from him. He cocked the gun back and knelt down beside Dale and pressed the gun to his head.

"Sorry, Brother." Daryl whispered to him. The gunshot rang out and I felt like my entire body just died as I felt Dale's hand go limp in mine. Daryl handed the gun back to Rick and walked over to me, pressing his hands against my shoulders. "Come on, Sutton. Let's go." I shook my head furiously not wanting to leave Dale's side. "Come on." He slowly stood me up and wrapped his arm around my shoulders but my legs felt weak and I was unable to keep myself up. He caught me before I fell to the ground and lifted me up into his arms and began to carry me off to his tent, me sobbing into his jacket.


	7. Chapter 7

The next morning came around and I continued to lay next to Daryl in his tent, playing his hand, tracing imaginery lines on his palm. He watched me closely, worried about me not getting any sleep last night. How could I when images of Dale gasping for breath, struggling to stay alive and his stomach ripped open kept flashing through my mind? I wanted to cry more and I wanted Daryl to hold me in his arms while I cried longer but I didn't have the energy to cry anymore. I was done. I was now...numb. My attention left Daryl's hand and I looked up into his blue eyes. He pushed a few strands of hair behind my ear and cupped my cheek in his hand.

"Are you hungry?" He asked in a hushed whisper. I slowly shook my head, never taking my eyes from his. "They're going to be burying Dale today. Do you want to go to the service?" I slowly shook my head, never taking my eyes from his. Daryl sighed. "Are you tired?" I slowly nodded my head, never taking my eyes from his. "Come here." His arms coiled around me and pulled me tightly against his chest. I sighed and closed my eyes at the feeling of being safe and warm. His arms were a fortress around me and I felt even more tired now that his arms were around me. I buried my face against his chest and started to drift to sleep as I took in his smell.

KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK KKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

After forcing me to eat a squirrel, Daryl and I made our way back up to the farmhouse where Rick was talking to Hershel.

"Gonna be tight." Rick said. "Fifteen people in one house."

"Don't worry about that." Hershel reassured him. "With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up..."

"With fifty head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell." Maggie finished.

"She's right. We should've moved you in a while ago."

"All right, let's move the vehicles near each of the doors facing out toward the road." Rick ordered. "We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft. That should give us sightlines both sides of the property. T-Dog, you take the perimeter around the house. Keep track of everyone coming and going?"

"What about standing guard?" He asked.

"I need you, Daryl and Sutton on double duty."

"Gotcha."

"I'll stock the basement with food and water, enough that we can all survive there for a few days if need be." Hershel said.

"What about patrols?" Andrea asked.

"Let's this place locked down first." Rick said. "After that, Shane'll assign shifts while Daryl, Sutton and I take Randall offsite and cut him loose."

"We're back to that now?" Shane questioned him.

"It's right plan first time around. Poor execution." Shane laughed.

"That's a slight understatement."

"You don't agree, but this is what's happening. Swallow it. Move on. You know Dale's death and the prisoner-" I glared at him as he mentioned Dale's death and he closed his mouth but soon opened it back up to speak. "You wanna take Daryl and Sutton as your wingmen, be my guest."

"Thank you." Rick said as he turned to walk away.

"You got it." Andrea loaded up the blue pickup truck and I threw my bow and quiver into the back too and Jimmy drove the truck up to the house. Daryl revved his motorcycle and I slowly made my way to him and climbed onto the bike backwards, my back pressing up against his and my feet on the pegs and he drove up to the farm with Rick, Hershel and Andrea following us.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Daryl and I stood by the pickup truck, loading up on our arrows, getting ready to take Randall when T-Dog walked over to me and handed me a gun.

"You only got so many arrows." T-Dog said. I gingerly took the gun from him and examined it closely. It was a colt revolver. Much like the one-

"Is this Dale's gun?" I asked him as I checked the bullets and closed it back up.

"Yeah. Thought Dale might want you to have it." I looked up at him.

"Thank you." I slid the gun into my belt and turned back to my arrows.

"Yeah."

"Wish the hell I knew where mine is." Daryl growled and T-Dog pulled out a Beretta 9 mill and handed it to him.

"Here's an extra." Daryl took it and put it in the back of his pants.

"Ready?" Rick asked walking up on us.

"Yeah." Daryl answered, grabbing a bottle of water and a crossbow.

"I'll get the package." T-Dog said and he headed to the shed to get Randall. "Hey! Rick! Daryl! Sutton! You better come look at this!" We all started running to the shed and climbed inside to see Randall gone. The rest of the group joined up with us and a conflict began to form.

"What's wrong?" Lori asked Rick.

"Randall's missing." Glenn explained.

"Missing? How."

"How long's he been gone?" Hershel asked.

"The cuffs are still hooked." Rick said. "He must've slipped 'em."

"Is that possible?" Carol asked.

"It is if you've got nothing to lose." Andrea answered.

"The door was secured from the outside." Hershel said.

"Rick!" Shane's voice sounded from the trees and we all turned to look in that direction. "Rick!" Shane came out of the forest with a cut on his nose and blood covering his mouth, chin and dripping down to his neck. He was breathing heavily as he stormed to us.

"What happened?" Lori yelled to Shane.

"He's armed! He's got my gun!"

"Are you ok?" Carl asked.

"I'm fine. Little bastard just snuck up on me. He clocked me in the face."

"All right, Hershel, T-Dog, get everybody back in the house." Rick ordered. "Glenn, Daryl, Sutton, come with us.

"T, I'm gonna need that gun." T-Dog handed Shane his gun.

"Just let him go." Carol said. "That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?"

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here not on our front step with a gun." Rick said.

"Don't go out there. Y'all know what can happen."

"Get everybody back in the house. Lock all the doors and stay put!" T-Dog and Hershel began to usher everyone into the house as the rest of turned to the forest and stormed off to it. I unbuckled my bow and nicked an arrow onto the bowstring, pulling gently on the string, ready to fire.

"I saw him head through the trees that way before I blacked out." Shane explained. "I'm not sure how long."

"He couldn't have gotten far. He's hobbled, exhausted."

"And armed." Glenn said.

"So are we. Can you track him?" Daryl looked at the ground around him and slowly shook his head.

"No, I don't see nothing." Daryl answered.

"Hey, look, there ain't no use in tracking him, okay?" Shane said. "He went that way. We need to pair up. We spread out. We just chase him down. That's it."

"Kid weighs a buck twenty five soaking wet. You trying to tell us he got the jump on you?"

"I say a rock pretty much even those odds, wouldn't you?"

"All right, knock it off." Rick ordered. "Glenn stay around this area, make sure he doesn't come back and get near the house. Daryl and Sutton, start heading up the right flank. Me and Shane'll take the left. Remember, Randall's not the only threat out there. Keep an eye out for each other." We all nodded our understanding and split off from each other.

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Night fell over the forest as I stayed close to Daryl who was looking closely at the ground trying to pick up Randall's tracks. Owls hooted in the distant and the wings of birds flutter in the silence of the eerie air. I listened to any moans or growls from walkers nearby but didn't hear any. I gripped my bowstring tightly, my knuckles turning white as I got more worried that something was going to jump out and get us. Maybe Daryl's Chupacabra...Daryl stopped and let out a sigh.

"This is pointless." He growled. "You got a light?" I pulled out a flashlight from my left pocket and handed it to him. He turned it on and shined it on the ground, looking for more tracks. He let out an irritated sigh and took a sharp right. "Come on."

"We're just back to square one." I muttered after a few more minutes of walking.

"If you're gonna do a thing, you might as well do it right. There's two sets of tracks right here. Shane must've followed him a lot longer than he said." He raised his flashlight up to a tree trunk and discovered a red strain on nature's bark. "There's fresh blood on this tree. There's more tracks. Looks like they're walking in tandem." An animal called out in the shadows of the night and I jumped in shock straight into Daryl. He looked down at me and I quickly took a step away, embrassaed by the reaction from the noise.

"Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry for, Sutt." We continued to walk on into the forest of death. "There was a little dust up right here.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean something went down."

"It's getting weird."

"Had a little trouble." Daryl crouched down to the ground and picked up the black blindfold that was supposed to be tied around Randall's face. Rustling sounded behind us and Daryl quickly turned off the flashlight and we hid behind two trees. I peered around the tree to see a walker trodding through the woods about ten yards from us. Daryl whistled softly to me and he tossed the flashlight and I caught it with ease, storing it back in my pocket. We waited for the walker to get closer to us and when the noise of its dragging feet was about a yard away, I moved out from behind the tree and raised my bow ready to shoot but the walker's face surprised me. Randall growled at me and shoved into me. I dropped my bow and arrow and fell to the ground. Daryl took a shot at Randall but missed and Randall attacked Daryl, pushing him against a tree, the crossbow stopping Randall's teeth from sinking into Daryl's flesh. I quickly got up and positioned myself behind the walker and flung my right leg up and slamming it into Randall's head, knocking him off of Daryl. I fell on top of him, grabbing an arrow from my quiver in the proccess and slamming it into the walker's head. Daryl and I both panted heavily as he helped me up to my feet and I pulled my arrow from the head and wiped it clean of the blood before putting it back into my quiver. "Oh. Nice." Daryl leaned down and kissed my cheek and I sighed and nodded before bending down to pick up my bow and arrow. Daryl bent down next to the walker and started to examine it. "Got his neck broke." He turned it over and checked his back but saw nothing so he turned it back over. "He's got no bites."

"Yeah, none you can see."

"No, Sutt, I'm telling you he died from this." We exchanged looks.

"How's that possible?" Daryl didn't answer. He got up and started back to the farmhouse and I followed closely behind him.


End file.
